TRE TORRI 2004

Having reached the twentieth edition, the TRE TORRI may be considered an institution. We are all proud of it, and I want to underline my great satisfaction for the latest edition, once again successful, thanks to the large number of countries that have taken part in it and the technical value at an Olympic level.

TRE TORRI 2004 is a beautiful reality, which, on its twentieth anniversary, has been praised by the world leading judo countries.

ITALIAN ATHLETES AT THE TRE TORRI 2004

It’s a real pity that the Italian Olympic national Team did not take part in the competition because of prior engagements. The team was in Korea training for the Olympic Games Athens 2004. Another missed chance for the Blues. We wish them all the best for Athens 2004.

THE NEW FORMULA FOR THE COMPETITION, A DIFFICULT CHOICE

The proposal for a new formula for the competition, since the individual fighter matches were anticipated to Friday and Saturday, may have hindered the participation of some Italian Clubs, but it has certainly improved the technical levels of the competition. Yet, we are open to suggestions.

THE GREAT CONTRIBUTION OF THE ITALIAN CLUBS

The army sporting teams have as usual taken part in the TRE TORRI annual event. Teams enrolled: C.S. Carabinieri, lead by: Luigi Guido, Massimo Lanzi, Augusto Lucantoni; the Carabinieri, together with their coach M° Marino Beccacece, have as usual fuelled the TRE TORRI, always taking part in the event. The sporting team “Fiamme Gialle” Guardia di Finanza, lead by the Olympian multi-decorated (Atlanta ’96 - Sydney ’00) Girolamo Giovinazzo. The sporting team “Fiamme Oro” State Police lead by Mauro Massaro and coached by the young trainer Dario Romano has always sent its best athletes and it is the only male army team to win a medal (bronze) with Stefano Sorelli. The sporting team “Fiamme Azzurre” Penitentiary police, with M° Roberto Tamanti; the Army Judo sporting centre Accompanied by Lieutenant colonel Biagio D’Andrea and Professor Raffaele Adornato in the technical staff.

Regional Committees. We want to emphasize the participation of the Regional committees from Piedmont and Veneto, the former led by the Coach Fabrizio Marchetti, the Latter by M° and personal friend Giorgio Crema. To all of them Thank you….! . We thank them for giving prestige to our efforts, for promoting our discipline and for contributing to the personal and technical enhancement of all the participants. It is our intention to do our best each time, and we are convinced that our efforts would be useless without your precious contribution. We also underline the fact that all those who did not take part in the tournament represent a great loss for both us and our beloved Judo. It is important to educate and communicate with the future generations and we are convinced that we are not doing enough, yet.

THE RETURN OF LEADING COUNTRIES SUCH AS GEORGIA

Georgia, always a highly competitive team, has not taken part in the competition since 1993, and Shota Khabareli, member of the technical staff, has been favourably surprised, being his first participation in this competition, by the technical level and the organization of the tournament, the friendly atmosphere which S.Elpidio welcomed the guests with. He complimented us on this account. The promise by Shota Khabareli that the Georgian team will participate in the TRE TORRI in the future is a heartwarming prospect for the future prestige of the TRE TORRI.

THE COME BACK OF A GEORGIA WISE GREEK TEAM

We welcome the return of the Olympic Greek team to the TRE TORRI 2004. The Hellenic team, of “Georgian origin”, is lead by Nikolaos Iliadis, Head Coach, father of the neo-European champion at Bucarest ’04, Ilias Iliadis. Their taking part in our tournament increases our prestige, also in view of the fact that the next Olympic Games ‘04 will be held in Athens in August. Greece has recently been quite successful on the international scene. The best results belong to this year: the young Ilias Iliadis came third both at the Paris ‘04 tournament in February and in Hamburg in March. Finally, he obtained his best results in the first semester of the year by becoming European Champion in Bucarest, in May 2004. Ilias Iliadis “The ice on the cake”, 90 kg. category, beat the powerful Yosyany Despaygne. A spectacular match, during which the two athletes openly and bravely fought and the neo European champion managed to overcome his opponent against all the odds , after a number of continuously changing situations concerning the score, thanks to his great willingness to win and fighting spirit.

ASTONISHING VENEZUELA

A last minute’s surprise, the Venezuelan Olympic team, which was one day late in joining the tournament, took part in the individual competition on the second day and on the third one for team competition. Of course we welcome these happy surprises but, even if we are well acquainted with Judo on a worldwide scale, we were surprised to see nations from overseas turn up at the presentation conference to take part in our competition. Still, we want to underline how members of our Judo family , in this case Venezuela, do not pay enough attention to the rules. Even if these last-minute participations have increased the already large number of nations and athletes of international value taking part in the TRE TORRI, our organization has inevitably gone through serious problems in terms of efficiency.

TRE TORRI 2004 – MALE INDIVIDUAL EVENTS

The TRE TORRI tournament presents a very high level individual male competition, in which JAPANESE ATHLETES, lead by Yukimasa Nakamura (World Champion Hamilton ’93 and second at Atlanta ’96) have prevailed over respectively CUBA, GEORGIA, UZBEKISTAN, GREECE, POLAND, ALGERIA, CANADA, BELGIUM, GERMANY, SPAIN, RUSSIA, SLOVENIA.
Yukimasa Nakamura: just like all the World Champions and illustrious names of Japanese Judo who have been our guests (Y.Yamashita, H. Minatoya, and S. Endo, H. Nakanishi, and T. Koshino, K. Kashiwazaki,), on the evening of Saturday 5th June, just before the finals, has given his contribution to the event by giving a brief demonstration of his “specials”. We take the chance to thank him warmly and to publish some details about him.

Yukimasa Nakamura has been the only athlete in the 65 kg. category first and then in the 66 kg. One has represented his Country six times in a row at the World Champioship, from 1993 to 2001.

Yukimasa Nakamura's World Championships:

1993 - Hamilton (Canada)

1995 - Makuhari (Japan)

1997 - Parigi (France)

1999 - Birmingham (England)

2001 - Monaco (Germany)

FEMALE INDIVIDUAL COMPETITIONS WON BY THE CUBAN TEAM

Ronaldo Veitia’s girls have once again been the main protagonists in the competition. They have won 6 golden medals and a bronze one in the 48 kg. with the very young Yamila Zambrano. The Cuban team, made up of important athletes, undoubtfully has a very high technical and competitive value.

In the 66 Kg. category Donato Erra, CS. Carabinieri, came fifth and Alessandro Bruyere, Akiyama, came seventh. Because of a strange coincidence, our two athletes ended up in two different rounds and were defeated by the Uzbek Murat Kalikulov (an athlete already qualified for the Olimpyc Games in Athens ’04): Alessandro Bruyere, winner of the latest adition of the tournament, in the quarter-final while Donato Erra in the final for the third place.

In the –73 kg. Category Marco Maddaloni came 5th. He put up a good performance in the most numerous category, 46 athletes, fighting at a very high technical level. In the first round, quite unluckily, Marco fought the Japanese Yugi Sonoda, winner in the category. Our boy put all his stamina and technical skill in the fight, but was defeated by an athlete who would show all his value in the course of the competition.If on one side Marco Maddaloni starts the competition facing a very strong opponent, on the other he will have the chance of making up for it in the repechage. Carefully coached by his brother Pino Maddaloni (Olimpyc Champion Sidney ’00) and advised by Masami Matsushita. He starts his way to the much longed for medal.

Marco Maddaloni's repechage

In the repechage Marco Maddaloni defeated respectively Marko Petric (Judo Klub Olimpija), the Russian Kostantin Zaretskiy, the Algerian Omar Meridja, Orazio D'Allura from G.S. Fiamme Gialle - Roma. In the final for the third place, he fought the Belgian Dirk Van Tichelt, who turned out to be a worthy Judo fighter. A long and exciting day for the athlete and his brother, who had to settle for the fifth place. We want to compliment the young man on his good performance, and tell him that soon his efforts will be rewarded.

Another Italian athlete who stando out in this category: Francesco Bruyere. The Piemontese athlete from Akiyama came seventh after getting through two rounds, beating the German Norbert Wessinger in the first and the Carabiniere Antonio Vastarella in the second and finally being defeated by the Uzbeko Egamnazar Akbarov. Akbarov has trodden the international boards for some time, we have seen him at the international tournament in Paris. The Uzbek fights at a good technical and tactical level, he is physically well-built and, furthermore he will take part in the Olympic Games at Athens ’04.

Unlucky day! Francesco Bruyere, who in last year’s edition of the TRE TORRI faced Jimmy Pedro (USA) in the final, has been as good this year. We wish the athlete of the Italian National Team, coached by Pierangelo Toniolo, better luck in the next TRE TORRI tournaments.

In the –81 kg. Category Silver for Antonio Ciano - Among the Italian athletes, Antonio Ciano, from the Star Judo Club of Naples coached by Gianni Maddaloni, stood out. The Neapolitan athlete stepped on the podium this year, in this very special edition. Ciano surprisingly beat the very strong Georgian Grigol Shinjikasvhili, but was beaten in the final by the Polish Robert Krawczyk (Seoi Nage’s Ippon), an opponent too strong for our champion. In the same category (-81 kg.) stood out Emidio Centracchio, following his father’s footsteps, who put up good performances and reached the semi-finals. He was beaten by the Polish Robert Krawczyk and by the Russian Salamu Mezhidov for the third and fifth place. It is really a pity, because we could have had a final all Italian.

In the -90 kg. category Stefano Sorelli won the bronze medal - The athlete of Neapolitan origins was beaten in the semifinals by Ilias Iliadis, European champion at Bucarest ’04. This category, full of illustrious names, has been a particularly difficult one. In spite of this, our athlete, from F.F.O.O. Polizia di Stato - Roma and the Italian national team, did not panic. Stefano Sorelli, Silver in the last editino of our tournament behind the Japanese Yuta Yazaki, confirmed his talents and came third before the German Marcel Jamet. During the preliminary heats, Sorelli won athletes such as the Algerian Khaled Meddah, silver medal at the African Championships ’04 and, in the quarter finals, a great exploit winning the Swiss Sergei Aschwanden European champion ’03 and second at the world championship Osaka ’03.

In the- 100 kg. category Mauro Pasta, Italian champion ‘04 came fifth. The athlete from Bergamo, from the Club “Isao Okano” Cinisello Balsamo (MI) coached by Diego Brambilla, put up very good performances and was beaten only by very good fighters such as the Cuban Oreidis Despaygne, the winner in this category and vice-Olympic champion Sidney ‘00 Nicolas Gill, who underlined Marco Pasta’s value, especially his defensive ability. We compliment him and his trainer Diego Brambilla.

In the + 100 kg. Category (15 athletes) the Carabiniere Paolo Isabella e Nicola Brandolini came fifth. The forecasts about the winner came true: Abdullo Tangriev, bronze medal at Osaka ’03 beat the Japanese Yohei Takai. Again our athletes Paolo Isabella and Brandolini Nicola (Dojo Equipe Bologna) were beaten in the quarter finals by the Uzbeck Abdullo Tangriev. In the repechage the Carabiniere Paolo Isabella will beat Fausto Gobbi, the Greek Vasilis Iliadis, will be overcome by the formidable Georgian Lasha Guejejiani, while the Bolognese Nicola Brandolini will be beaten by the German Nils Kopke.

MALE INDIVIDUAL EVENTS

In the -60 kg. Category, the Japanese Takeshi Ogawa won the gold medal - The forecasts about the winner came true and the Japanese Takeshi Ogawa, presently n°2 in Japan and winner of the Jigoro Kano Cup 2002, won two Waza ari in the final. We want to underline the Morote Seoi nage of the Japanese, in which the right arm, according to us, must make a big effortto throw. Still, Ogawa manages to do it when facing the formidable Vakhtan Khositashvili, a very high level athlete, with a style typical of the Georgian school. The Georgian’s “palmarès” is highly respectable: he came 2nd at the world University Games in China 2002, National Champion Georgia ’04. The curricula of the two finalists explain the technical and agonistic levels of this category at the TRE TORRI ’04. The second place of the Georgian Vakhtan Khositashvili will be a disillusionment for his technical manager Shota Khabareli (Olimpyc Champion at Moscow ’80) a very well known character among the members of the jet set of the World and Olympic Judo.

The Belgian Fabrice Flamand stand out for his value in the -60 Kg. category. He beats respectively the tough Neapolitan Francesco Cozzo from Star Judo Club Napoli and the Algerian Omar Rebahi. The Belgian Fabrice Flamand will give in to the Georgian Vakhtan Khositashvili in the semifinal and will come third after beating the Slovenian Simon Mohorovic. A great satisfaction for the Belgian athlete coached by Didier SAUBLEN. Among the Italians stood out Marco Caudana, who came fifth. The Piedmontese, performing for the regional selection of Piedmont, went through the first heat beating the Slovenian Simon Mohorovic, and the second heat beating Marco D’Auria of F.F.O.O. - Roma. In an impossibile semifinal he gave in for “ippon” to the Japanese Takeshi Ogawa, after putting up a good fight. The Algerian Omar Rebahi, eliminated in the quarter finals by the good Belgian athlete Fabrice Flamand, thanks to a repechage will come third after beating Marco Caudana. Algeria, always present with its Olympic team, has shown an excellent technical level, both among its male and female athletes.

In the -66 kg. category the Cuban Yordanis Arencibia won the gold medal. It was Arencibia Yordanis’ day. He excelled everybody, proving his talents and technical-tactical abilities, by now at an Olympic level. The Cuban, in spite of his young age, 24, has on his credit side a very respectful career.

Arencibia will try to win the gold medal in Athens next August, after failing to win it in Sidney. In our opinion, after seeing his performance at this year’s TRE TORRI, he may well succed.

On the “half-board”- A, the opponents who theoretically were more dangerous to him were Sanjar Zokirov - UZB, the Georgian, a naturalized Greek, Zindiridis Revar - GRE, who has already taken part in the Paris tournament ’04, and finally the Japanese Hiroyuki Akimoto. The final was highly spectacular thanks to the Ippon, made up of a kind of Sode tsuri komi goshi invented on the spot and adapted to the defensive reaction of the Japanese, who failed his aspiration for victory after facing a real champion. Hiroyuki Akimoto fought very well in the final and was highly appreciated by the audience. This very young Japanese boy was Japanese Champion in 2003 in a no-weight category at “High School” level.

In the –73 kg. Took part athletes like the French-Tunisian Ferrid Kheder, who already took part in the TRE TORRI 2002. The Tunisian Athlete, training for the Olympic Games Athens ’04, qualified in his category -66 Kg., a good result, in order to reach the ideal weight, but there is no arguing with the imperative “Le Jeux sont les Jeux”. Very interesting was the performance of the Spanish Ivan Ovied, who, after going through four heats, was beaten in the semi-final by the winner in the category. The Spanish will be third, bronze medal, after beating an illustrious athlete, winner of TRE TORRI ’01, the Algerian Nourredine Yagoubi. On the other side, the Belgian Dirk Van Tichelt wins his bronze medal after beating our Marco Maddaloni. An interesting athlete this young man, who performed very well and had his way to the final barred only by the Georgian David Margosvhili.

In the - 81 kg. Category - Robert Krawczyk won the gold medal. This athlete, by now ready to obtain important results in international competitions and a candidate for Athens, has finally reached his first success at the TRE TORRI ’04. He also won the bronze medal in the 2001 tournament. The Polish athlete successively won over our veteran Fernando Marverti, the Algerian Amar Benikhlef, the latter qualified for Athens too, the Japanese Eigo Nose, the Italian Emidio Centracchio in the semi-final and Antonio Ciano by Seoi Nage Ippon in the final. A superlative performance by the Polish, who is ready to play a relevant part at Athens. In this category, we can single out athletes such as the Russian Salamu Mezhidov, already qualified for Athens ’04, and the Georgian Grigol Shinjikasvhili, respectively come third at the TRE TORRI’04.

In the - 90 category the Georgian, naturalized as a Greek, Ilias Iliadis won the gold medal. Grecee has for some time taken the initiative of naturalizing athletes from Georgia, which has already allowed them to create a competitive team, as we have seen it at the Paris tournament last February. Such a choice, not agreed upon by everybody in Greece, is giving the first positive results in international competitions, with the young Ilias Iliadis who won the bronze medal at the Paris and Humburg ’04 tournaments, and recently became European Champion, -81Kg. He has taken part at TRE TORRI 2004 - 90 kg. Beating the Cuban Yosvany Despaygne in the final. It is a highly spectacular final, in which the strength of the Cuban has given in to Ilias Iliadis freshness and determination. According to us the young athlete is a likely candidate to the gold medal in Athens. In this category there are athletes of undoubted international value, such as the European champion ’03 - Dusserldorf and the vice-World Champion ’03 Osaka - 81 kg. Sergei Aschwanden and the Canadian Keith Morgan.

In the -100 kg. Category, the Cuban Oreidis Despaygne won the gold medal. The Cuban delegation, preparing for the Olimpic Games in Athens, has taken part in the competition with a very competitive team. Among them, the young Oreidis Despaygne, a very interesting athlete with a good technical competence and an excellent physical preparation. The Cuban has beaten respectively the Russian Dimitry Maksimov, an athlete who has already won medals in international tournaments (super in Moscow) already qualified for Athens, the Italian champion Renato Vinassa and the Italian champion ‘04 Mauro Pasta. In the final, the Cuban Oreidis Despaygne has fought the Georgian George Kizilashvili. In this category there are such athletes as the Vice-World Champion at Sydney 2000, the Canadian Nicolas Gill, and the Algerian, qualified for Athens, Sami Belgroun, both bronze medal winners at THE TRE TORRI ’04.

In the +100 kg. category the Uzbekistani Abdullo Tangriev won the gold medal. 15 athletes have competed in this category and, as expected, the Uzbekistani Abdullo Tangriev (bronze medal at Osaka ’03 World Championship) won the gold medal. The Uzbekistani athlete, well ahead of all the others, has won all his matches by Ippon. Thanks to his favoured technique, a kind of Seoi nage with a grip on the sleeves, several times used in international tournaments, Tangriev defeats the Italian athletes Fausto Gobbi, Paolo Isabella, Nicola Brandolini.
Really impressive it is the way he won the match with the Japanese Yohei Takai, beating him by Ippon. The Uzbekistani athlete applies a technique which is as usual half way through between Seoi nage and Sode tsuri komi goshi, followed by an Osae komi after the knock down, in order to get full marks. During the mach one got the impression that the two athletes belonged to two different categories. As usual, the Japanese school stands out. Yohei Takai, a nice, playful young athlete, has shown his favourite techniques, among them O uchi gari - Uchi mata. In his leg, the Japanese Yohei Takai seems to have no rivals: he beats respectively the Chinese Wang Fei, the German Nico Kanning and finally the most competitive Georgian Lasha Guejejiani. Along his way to the final, the Japanese has proved to be worth the gold medal in a competition that turns out to be an excellent one. Worth mentioning is the Georgian Lasha Guejejiani, who is taking part in the Olympic Games in Athens, and shared the bronze medal with the German Nils Kopke at the TRE TORRI.

THE FEMALE INDIVIDUAL COMPETITION

In the - 48 category The Algerian ‘04 African Champion Haddad Soraya won the gold medal. 13 athletes, representing 6 of the most important nations, have taken part in this competition: The German Julia Mattijass from the Olympic National Team, (5th place World Championship Osaka ’03, Bronze European Championship Paris ’01), the Cuban Yamila Zambrano, the Russian Yana Serbova and the Canadian Isabel Letulippe. During the competition the Algerian immediately stood out as the strongest in that category. Soraya Haddad, by now among the best in the international panorama, was African Champion ’03 in Nigeria, won the title again in Tunisi in ’04 and got another prestigious result by coming 2nd at the A category tournament in Hamburg ’04. At the latest edition of THE TRE TORRI she got the gold medal, showing great determination and good technique. She particularly stood out thanks to her performance against the Cuban Yamila Zambrano, prevailing thanks to a (Sumi gaeshi) assessed with a “Waza ari”, which,in our opinion, comes nearer to a (Hikkomi waza). Soraya beat Julia Mattijass in the final. It is likely a return match in Athens for the two athletes, who had the chance of fighting each other on a prestigious occasion.

The world champion Osaka ‘03 Amarilis Savon won the gold medal undisputed domination of the World Champion Osaka ’03, Amarilis Savon, who will withdraw from the international scene after Athens ’04, where she will try to repeat the success of Osaka ’03. It is not to be forgotten that Amarilis Savon has already won two Olimpic Bronze medals at Barcelona ’92 and Atlanta ’96. She was reborn in her new -52 category after the withdrawal of her fellow-countrywoman the Olimpic Champion Legna Verdecia. Amarilis found new motivation, and we wish her, after such a long and brilliant career, a great success in her life, too. At the TRE TORRI she faced quite good opponents such as the Algerian Salima Souakri, certainly the most titled one, twice fifth at the Olympic games in Barcelona ’92 and Sydney ’00, but who will have to settle for the second place on this occasion. Another leading athlete, the German Raffaella Imbriani bronze at the World Championship Osaka ’03 and preparing for Athens ’04, was beaten in the semi-final by Amarilis Savon will come third together with the Belgian Kristel Taelman.

In the -57 Kg. Category the World Champion Munich ’01 Yurisleidis Lupetey won the gold medal. Once again the World Champion Munich ’01, Yurisleidis Lupetey faced in the final Olga Sonina. The Russian athlete ranks high on the international scene, and qualified for Athens ’04. We should emphasize that for Lupetey the real “final” was facing the German Yvonne Boenisch, in the semifinal. The latter won the silver medal at Osaka ’03. The girl, coached by Norbert Littkopf, is quite good and, in our opinion, there might be a surprise at the Olympic Games in Athens. Let’s wait and see if we are right. In third place, together with Yvonne Boenisch,came the English Sophie Cox, vice-European Champion Bucarest ‘04,qualified for the Olympic Games. She beat the German Roper Miryam, from the selection TSV Grosshadern Munich Bavaria, coached by the technical manager and our old friend Ralph Matusche.

In the – 70 Kg. category Anaisis Hernandez, bronze at the World Championship Munich ’01, won the gold medal. The Cuban girl, a member of the most prestigious team in the tournament, defeats the German Jana Grenzdorfer, from the TSV Grosshadern Munich Bavaria selection team, notwithstanding she sprains her left hand fingers, which inevitably impairs her performance. Anaisis manages to compete and win the golden medal at the 20th edition of THE TRE TORRI. Anaisis is worried about her hand; an operation on her ligaments would not allow her to recover completely in due time. So, the girl coached by Ronaldo will have to perform with her fingers seriously sprained at the Athens Games.
This is the price she must pay to take part in the Olympic Games. In the -70 kg. category Annette Boehm wins the bronze medal., which comes after her best ever performance, Bronze at Osaka ’03 World Championship. She beats the French Ghislaine Bretteville of Acs Peugeot Mulhouse. In the -70 kg. category, bronze medal for the Slovenian Regina Jernejc who beats the Algerian Ouarden Rachida.

In the -78 kg. category, Gold medal for the vice-World Champion Osaka ’03 Yurisel Laborde. As the saying goes: “...the music goes on...”. No statement is more suitable to describe our satisfaction in sharing her happiness after listening four times to the Cuban national Anthem and seeing the imposing “YuYu”,the nickname of the likeable and cheerful Caribbean Champion, stepping onto the podium. It is an all American final, since she fights the Canadian Amy Cotton, she too qualified for the Athenian Olympic Games, who will have to settle for the second place. A useful experience for the two athletes, who shortly might both compete for a more prestigious title. Michela Torrenti, from “Gruppo sportivo Fiamme Gialle” in Rome, is the only Italian atlete to step onto the podium at THE TRE TORRI this year, after winning the final for the third place over the German Esther Ridde of the selection TSV Grosshadern from Munich Bavaria. The other final is won by the German champion Uta Kuhenen, who beats the Russian Eugenia Skvortsova.

In the +78 Kg category gold to the vice-Olympic Champion Sydney ’00 Daima Beltran. In the female heavy weights category, we have well-known athletes such as Daima Beltran Guisado, the German Sandra Koppen, the English Karina Bryant, and others such as the Belgian Tack Linsay, the Canadian Olia Berger, the German Verena Brindorfer. The only unfortunate event has been the impossibility of playing the final between Daima Beltran Guisado and Karina Bryant, because of a mistake in planning the return flight by the English. We really wonder how such a thing may happen to an athlete taking part in a tournament like the TRE TORRI. We want to mention the only Italian athlete in this category, Giulia Ferrara, to emphasize her willpower in taking part in a competition full of Olympic-level champions.

A short comment on this year’s edition. Athletes at a prestigious international level have taken part in every female category. This is a very satisfactory result reached by our organization.

THE TEAM COMPETITION AT THE TRE TORRI 2004

Another innovation at the TRE TORRI ’04 has been the team competition on Sunday, June 6th. After two days of individual competitions at a high level, we feared the possibility that the team competition might become less interesting or be too hard for athletes who had fought the previous day. On the contrary, the competition has been very intense and has raised the interest of the foreign teams, that have shown a great desire to prove their worthand win.The team competition, beside being special for creating unity among the members of each team, who are aware of representing their own country, has made the whole competition much more interesting. We have the impression of having hit the target, and after such a hard trial, full of positive innovations, we are sure that the next edition will be an extraordinarily important event. Bearing in mind comments made on the spur of the moment, new countries will join in next year, with more and more pugnacious and competitive teams, both in the male and female categories.

The following teams have taken part in the male team competition:

1 ALGERIA (Olympic Team)

2 CHINA (National Team)

3 CUBA (Olympic Team)

4 GEORGIA (National Team)

5 GERMANY (Junior National Team)

6 JAPAN (National Team)

7 GREECE (Olympic Team)

8 UZBEKISTAN (Olympic Team)

9 VENEZUELA (Olympic Team)

10 Selection TRE TORRI

The following teams have taken part in the female team competition:

ALGERIA (Olympic Team)

CUBA (Olympic Team)

GERMANY (Olympic Team)

GERMANY (TSV Grosshadern - Munchen)

VENEZUELA (Olympic Team)

Selection TRE TORRI

ITALIAN ATHLETES IN THE TEAM COMPETITION AT THE TRE TORRI 2004

In compliance with regulations, since the Italian Olympic Team has not taken part in the competition, the Organizing Committee has allowed the creation of an Italian Team, both female and male. Among the participants in the individual competition, we have seen Diego Brambilla, well-known Champion (Bronze at the World Championship in Makuhari 1995 - Japan) and appreciated Judo professional technical coach whom we thank for his collaboration. A team representing the TRE TORRI has created a very good impression after competing with Nation Teams such as Uzbekistan, finalist with Cuba, and the German male Junior team, coached by Richard Trautmann.

Athletes in the male team competition:

60 Kg. Minuto Marco

66 Kg. Falsirollo Enrico

73 Kg. Maserin Roberto

81 Kg. Bagnoli Lorenzo

90 Kg. Stefano Sorelli

-100 Kg. Pasta Mauro

+100 Kg. Brandolin Nicola / Gobbi Fausto

The TRE TORRI female team ended up, by lot, with the Algerian team, led by the Champion Souakri Salima, and with the Olympic Team lead by Norbert Lipttkof. Of course, the Italian girls were inevitably defeated, in spite of their efforts to make a good impression.

Athletes in the female team competition:

48 Kg. Balsari Diana

52 Kg. Guiducci Martina / Turchet M. Elena

57 Kg. Moretti Laura

63 Kg. Pietrangeli Marina

70 Kg. Radaelli Jasmine

78 Kg. Bellavitis Maddalena

+78 Kg. Absent

THE INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR FOR TEACHERS AND COACHES

The idea of introducing in the programme of the tournament an International Seminar for teachers and coaches has been a very positive one.

The participation of personalities such as:

Patrick ROUX 6° Dan (a member of the CTN at FFJDA assigned to training)

Didier JANICOT 6° Dan (a member of the CTN at FFJDA assigned to training)

Yves CADOT 4° Dan (export in Eastern Culture and in the Japanese language)

has certainly been a great help for the promoter of the initiative, who set himself the objective of giving equal importance to both the sporting and cultural sides of the event.

Our project is rooted in the need for creating an event in which different realities and Judo cultures from all over the world get in touch with one another and, at the same time, enrich our experience. The French Team, directed from Patrick ROUX, has played an important role to create a pleasant atmosphere, beyond having demonstrated a good technique, an effective didactic progression and a deep pedagogical knowledge, in particular about Katame - waza.

Also, Didier JANICOT lesson on the Ashi - waza was very interesting. At last, Yves CADOT has enriched the seminary quoting Jigoro Kano writings that dealt with the discussed themes. During the Seminary we gave wide importance to the discussion (Mondo), as planned in our targets. The thoughts of Master Hiroshi NAKAMURA, Head coach of the Canadian Team, and of Yukimasa NAKAMURA, World Champion (Hamilton 93) and Vice Olympic Champion (Atlanta' 96) have been interesting and deepened. Also, Yukimasa NAKAMURA has shown its special ones very shyly. The Sport Director of the Belgian team Didier SAUBLEN was particularly interested in the initiative. He contributed to the stage showing a technical progression for the overcoming of every kind of problem connected to the projection and to the learning of the “Ukemi”. The coaches of Algeria, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Cuba, Canada, Japan, Denmark and Germany have also taken part to the initiative.

The International Seminary has raised questions:
Which are the problems that we meet on our way of Technical Teachers in terms of Didactics of pedagogical knowledge? Which activities should we privilege in the juvenile bands and which proposals should we elaborate so that our base movements do not become poorer and poorer? Which is our image of the sport, from the point of view of who, as a leader, places the problem of spreading out the discipline? How can we support the Judo Education of J. KANO?

During the Seminary it has been discussed, attempted and tried also to give answers. Even if we have had many positive notes from this encounter, I think, as the person in charge of the organisation of TRE TORRI, that the we still have a long way to go. The important is that we have begun, in such sense we will release a DVD that will focus on some contents of the Stag?

THE STAGE POST-CONTEST OF THE TRE TORRI

We use this occasion to stimulate our favourite athletes to participate to stage after the contest. We are talking about athletes like Akbarov, and others like the Japaneses, Germans, Uzbeks, Swiss’s, Belgians, Canadians, Cubans, Venezuelans, Chileans, Algerians, Tunisians and others, the list would be too long. Apart from being good adversaries during the contest, they are also athletes who stay in order to train in our traditional Stage. Unfortunately our greater technical-combative Italians still have not understood the importance of the stage after the contest. This happened too often, so we forgive the athletes who sometimes do not have the power to take decisions, little less understanding goes to the coaches and the leaders. It happened many times that the foreigner athletes come to the TRE TORRI and stay for the stage, while our most important Italian athletes leave.

You allow us to make one observation: “when our best athletes leave after the contest is a real pity, when they do not take advantage of a similar occasion is, from our point of view, a wrong choice. With all the attenuations of the case, we believe that perhaps a day we will understand it, and then we will say, Better late that never!”. We also believe that there are many problems and very difficult things to understand and, most of all, to organise, but we patiently wait.